Consider yourself blessed if your wife or girlfriend is willing and able to craft a work of beauty such as this. My lovely lady made this for me 2 years ago and it is AWESOME.

If you’d like to subtly hint to your significant other that you might like something like this, just send them this link. Or try and tackle it yourself. There’s no shame in needlework when you’re crafting something this divine.

So there is this thing called the Christian Game Developer’s Conference that exists in Oregon and, when I first heard about it, I rolled my eyes and pictured keynote speeches about how to create games where the main character gets to level up for correctly saying the sinner’s prayer. At the very least it would probably involve discussions on how to sell more games like the above-pictured Left Behind: Eternal Forces, a real-time strategy game where one converts the heathens to fight on your side or, barring the failure of evangelization, blows ’em all away instead (to be fair, you’re ‘penalized’ for this). Gaming blog Kotaku has a well-written article about this year’s conference, which is their 10th, and after reading it I have hope again for the Christian video game.

Welcome to Gaming For God, the place where d-pads and dice meet the divine! Within the hallowed borders of your trusty browser we’ll discuss some of the things we love most, namely gaming (both of the video and board varieties) and religion. Still confused? Never fear! I’ve put together a helpful venn diagram to walk you through the confusing nature of our little blogging enterprise.

See that blue part in the middle? That’s us! Simple, isn’t it?

Game Master Stephen is both a connoisseur of retro games of yesteryear and an owner of an actual Masters of Divinity degree, perhaps making him the global expert on the parallels between 8-bit sidescrollers and the Torah. I love gaming of the cardboard variety and will force those of you foolish enough to stumble into this blog to read my essays on the joys of European style boardgames (hey, wait, come back, where are you going?). Add a healthy dollop of humor to this potent combination of geekery and you have something wholly unique on the internet. It may, in fact, be so unique that we’ll be the only ones reading it.

So kick back, relax, and let Gaming For God entertain and enlighten you! If at any point you continue to be confused, just refer back to the above diagram.

Second things second, if you don’t understand why the above picture is funny, then you might be in the wrong place. Were you looking to test your knowledge of Yoga positions? Perhaps looking for a video of a cat saving a baby from an adorable, yet angry, herd of elephants? If so, back up that browser and keep searching Beliefnet.

However, if you are looking for hardcore awesome discussions about video games, humor, and yes, even a little spirituality, you have arrived at the right place. A winner is you, indeed! Myself and Game Master Evan will be dazzling you with hilarious posts about religion and video games from now until the plot of Fallout becomes reality. I am a pro in the spiritual art of console gaming, specializing in the retro games and most anything crazy that comes from Japan. A few things I’ve got planned are:

10 Legend of Zelda Items That Would Have Been Useful in the Bible

The Religious Reality of Final Fantasy X

The Top Un-Godly Video Game Peripherals

…and more!

If those topics sound awesome (they are!) then hit the subscribe button and prepare for one wild, side-scrolling, pixelated ride through the world of video game-age.